The elder abuse and dependent adult civil protect

Passed by the California Legislature in January 1992, the “Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act makes it practical for elderly people who suffer physical abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation from con artists, relatives, or staff in nursing homes to file civil suits and collect damages from the perpetrators. The law requires the court to award attorneys' fees and costs if the victim proves a case of clear and serious abuse. The victim's lawyer must show that the wrongdoer was guilty of recklessness, fraud, or malice in the commission of certain forms of abuse: physical abuse, neglect, and financial or fiduciary (fih-DOO-she-air-ee) abuse. Clear and convincing evidence is a burden of proof that’s midway between the much stricter criminal law standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and the normal lawsuit standard in which a lawyer must show that it’s more likely than not that the defendant committed the misconduct. The law compels the wrongdoer both to compensate the victim for the harm inflicted and, as a separate issue, to pay for the cost of litigation, including attorneys' fees, costs of expert witnesses such as doctors and accountants, and reasonable fees for a conservator's (kun-SIR-vuh-tors) services. Damage awards for pain and suffering up to $250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand dollars) can be recovered, even if the judgment is rendered after the victim's death. The act will help prosecutions and lawsuits against financial and physical abusers of mentally impaired elders and dependent adults. It also fights against inappropriate deprivation of elders' civil liberties in hasty decisions for guardianship by requiring specifically defined determinations of mental incompetence. Mere forgetfulness, for example, is excluded.